Insight, social functioning and readmission to hospital in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: prospective associations.

It has been claimed that insight is capable of predicting important clinical outcomes among people with schizophrenia. However, the supporting evidence is sparse. Although many cross-sectional studies have been undertaken, only prospective studies can provide convincing evidence. The aims of the present research were to assess the ability of insight to predict subsequent readmissions to hospital and social functioning. Patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (N=90) were recruited at the time of an acute psychotic episode and then re-assessed after 6, 12, and 24 months. Assessments included insight, three measures of social functioning, and symptoms of psychosis. There was no evidence that having been readmitted to hospital since a previous assessment was associated with insight at the previous assessment. None of the associations between insight at one assessment and social functioning at subsequent assessments was significant. Changes in insight were associated with changes in contemporary functioning, but it was found that changes in insight made no significant contributions to changes in functioning which were independent of changes in symptoms. The general aim of improving clinical outcomes would probably be better met with interventions designed to improve functioning rather than interventions to improve insight.

Immediate source-monitoring, self-focused attention and the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Previous research suggests that tendencies to misattribute one's own thoughts to an external source, as assessed by an immediate source-monitoring test, are associated with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). However, recent research suggests that such tendencies are associated instead with symptoms of thought interference. The main aim of the present study was to examine whether such tendencies are differentially associated with different types of thought interference, with AVHs, or with both. It has also been suggested that external misattributions are especially likely to occur with emotionally salient material and if the individual's focus is on the self. These suggestions were also tested. The positive psychotic symptoms of 57 individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed and they then completed the Self-Focus Sentence Completion blank. Immediately after completing each sentence they were asked to indicate to what extent the sentence was their own. The number of sentences that were not rated as completely their own served as their externalization score. Externalization scores correlated significantly with the severity of three symptoms: voices commenting, delusions of being controlled, and thought insertion. In a logistic regression analysis, all three of these symptoms were significantly and independently related to externalization. Externalization was not associated with either a negative or a neutral self-focus. Thus tendencies to misattribute one's own thoughts to an external source are associated with AVHs and some, but not all, symptoms of thought interference. The importance for externalization of self-focused attention and of the emotional salience of the elicited thoughts was not supported.

Insight and recovery from acute psychotic episodes: the effects of cognitive behavior therapy and premature termination of treatment.

Research suggests that insight in schizophrenia is only weakly responsive to targeted psychosocial interventions. One of the aims of the present study was to examine the effects on insight of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for acutely psychotic patients. A second aim was to test predictions drawn from research on recovery styles that patients who reject psychological assistance will show a reduction in insight while those who continue to accept psychological assistance will show increases in insight over time. Patients with acute schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were assigned at random to treatment-as-usual (TAU) or TAU plus CBT. The latter were also divided into those who terminated treatment prematurely (dropouts) and those who did not (stay-ins). Insight was assessed at baseline and three follow-up assessments. Insight increased over the follow-up period, but there were no differences between the CBT and TAU groups. Within the CBT group, dropouts showed a reduction in insight at the 6-month assessment before returning to their baseline level, while the stay-ins showed linear improvement up to 12 months. Possible explanations for these contrasting patterns, in terms of resilience, attachment styles, and an insecure sense of self, are discussed.

On two kinds of delusion of reference.

Although delusions of reference are one of the most common psychotic symptoms, they have been the focus of little research. The aims of the present research were, first, to determine whether it is possible to identify different kinds of referential delusions reliably and, if so, to investigate associations among them and between these delusions and other positive psychotic symptoms. Participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n=57) were recruited from a volunteer register (n=26) and from inpatient psychiatric wards (n=31). They were interviewed with the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) except that the questions about ideas and delusions of reference were replaced with questions targeted at seven particular delusions and three content areas. Ratings were made independently by two assessors. Agreement between the assessors was high for all of the delusions of reference and other psychotic symptoms. A factor analysis of these ratings revealed two factors that represent delusions of communication and delusions of observation. Only delusions of observation were associated with hallucinations and persecutory ideation. Delusions of communication showed few significant correlations with other symptoms and therefore appear to require different explanations.